As a young team owner of the newest franchise in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, Jeao Diaz is known for his cool demeanor, rarely showing signs of emotions whenever the Ilagan Isabela Cowboys are playing inside the hardcourt.
He would normally sit behind the bench while watching his squad compete.
But just recently, during the celebration of Farmers and Fisherfolks Month presented by Landbank, the young team owner who happens to be the president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the City of Ilagan and chief executive officer of the Sagittarian Agricultural Philippines Incorporated, Diaz took center stage as he shared his inspiring stories, best innovative practices, and actionable insights.
“Kami po ay farmers (we are farmers),” said Diaz as part of his opening speech. “While we may seem not like one, we are proud to be one. I think it’s time for us to break the stereotype about modern technology combined with science and technology and the right tools that make farming, precise, manageable.”
How farming became a key contributor to the country’s economic growth?
“Why farming? The contribution of agriculture to Philippine economy is stronger. It contributed 9% to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2023. Chicken broiler production and chicken hatching composed of 20.4%, hog farming around 18.4%.” said Diaz, who was also invited in various notable events as one of the resource speakers.
The young entrepreneur saw the potential of farming.
Coming from a family who also delves in politics, Diaz focused more on two things – his love for sports and more importantly, a diverse company that delves in different types of businesses that could provide job opportunities and sustainable growth to the City of Ilagan and he wants other cities to use the Corn Capital of the Philippines as model of different cities .
During the talk, Diaz also explained that Gross Value Added in Agriculture, Farm and Fishing grew by 1.2% in 2023, driven by higher chicken and hog production, and of course, through the wisdom of their founder, his father and current Ilagan City Mayor Jose Mari Diaz – Northern Luzon accounts 21% of corn production in the entire country.
“Around 50-60% of the feed formulation, usually binibili po ito ng ating mga traders sa ating mga farmers. They will sell it to our feed millers sa Central Luzon and Southern Luzon. Of course, there would be additional expenses there such as labor expense, fuel expense, travel, etc., then they will go back and forth, with the same expenses,” said Diaz.
“Tapos ang nabebentahan nila are the markets in the backyard farmers. But some of these farmers, if not most of them, are the same farmers na nagtatanim rin po ng mais. But why not do the production in our cities? This has prompted us to establish our own feed mills (Sagittarian Agricultural Philippines).”
Sagittarian Agricultural Philippines envisions itself to be the leader in integrated farming, animal production, construction, real estate and allied agribusiness services in the country and abroad, in partnership with its valued customers, employees, investors and community.
“That’s what we did in the City of Ilagan, para ma-eliminate na natin yung tedious process na nabanggit natin kanina,” added Diaz. “Later on, we’ve implemented vertical integration and added value to our products, adding state-of-the-art machinery and enhancing sustainability of our operations, benefitting not only our poultry businesses, but also helping our farmers as well.”
“When I assumed the role as president in our company, we initiated innovations that we are proud to say, that made globally-competitive corporation. But in order to achieve this, we have to make changes in our policies and norms, strengthen our corporate governance.”
First order of business, according to Diaz, was to provide and quantify 1 million birds per cycle and 500,000 heads of chicken per month.
“This is necessary for us to compete against multinational companies and comply with the demands of our market. But to do this, we realized the importance of our technology, and from 2017, we were able to increase our production to 500%, we were able to cut our production by more than 20%, growing of chicken from 35 days to 28 days. All of these combined gave us higher margins.”
As part of the corporation’s growth, Diaz also took the next steps of enhancing their Human Resources system, accounting system and standard operation procedures.
“By doing this, we came up with computer programs that enhanced efficiency. This is essential of course to maximize our resources, providing us not just quality, but safe production and that enabled us to get ISO Certification. Our quality management also gave us ISO 22000 for safety,” he said.
“We are also proud to say that we were the only manufacturing company in Region II that was given special award – a Philippine Quality Award for our regional program — given by the Department of Trade and Industry.”
Sagittarian Agricultural Philippines Incorporated’s diverse line of businessed allowed them to forge partnerships with some of the big players and allowed them to attract institutional partners in the industry, among them include CPF (Charoen Pokphand Foods), Andok’s, Baliwag, Sr. Pedro, S & R and Kenny Roger’s Roasters among others for chicken meat.
Today, Mr. Diaz’s objective is for them to achieve 12 million chicken heads per year.
“We continue this as our corporate social responsibility, to impact the lives of people within our community, providing more jobs, matching them with the continues growth of our city,” he added.
The outbreak of the African Swine Fever, Diaz and their company saw the importance of selfsufficiency and food security as almost of the swine population in the country was affected by ASF. They partnered with a company from Thailand, Charoen Pokphand Foods.
CPF’s sophisticated approach in biosecurity system has been essential in achieving food security using its five principles – good breed, good feed, good housing, good management and good disease preventive measures.
Together with CPF, Diaz and their company produced 500,00 heads of swine per year in the province of Isabela.
Diaz and his family also created a farm for its dairy products, giving famers another opportunity to have additional resources for cropping season. Usually, farmers have two cropping seasons and by having this farm for its dairy gives the farmers an extra cropping season for them.
This farm produces dairy products from Mr. Moo, an organic cow’s milk that were used for producing other products like Fresh Cow and Carabao’s Milk, Kesong Puti, Probiotic Yogurt, Panna Cotta, Gelato Ice Cream, and Pastillas de Leche, among others.
Mr. Moo now has branches in Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Cavite. Laguna and Batangas and Metro Manila. Its products became benchmarks and recognized by the Department of Agriculture, National Dairy Authority and other private institutions.
Summing up everything, Diaz and his family’s diverse line of businesses were formed with the demands of emerging new markets, adapting to new technologies, that will help them achieve sustainable growth. By harnessing change, they were able to navigate challenges to position themselves as one of the leaders in the agriculture sector.
